Adaptation of white mice (Mus musculus) to repeated cooling.

Abstract

The effects, on the body temperature of white mice, of repeated short exposures to cold were investigated using two methods of restraint. Animals held in a flattened posture became hypothermic at room temperature, cooled more than five times as fast at −10 °C as mice that could adopt a heat-conserving posture, and continued to cool for some time after they were removed from the cold. With repeated tests, cooling at room temperature decreased, and an improvement in re warming ability was observed. In addition, with lightly restrained mice, the fall in rectal temperature during cold exposure showed a progressive decrease, a phenomenon not observed with severely restrained animals.